Method and apparatus for routing data

ABSTRACT

A method of operating a wireless network with a base station and a plurality of outstations comprising transmitting a broadcast signal from the base station, and, in response to reception of the broadcast signal, transmitting an acknowledgement signal from an outstation;  
     wherein at least some of the outstations serve for relaying of signals for other outstations,  
     wherein an outstation relaying an acknowledgement signal appends to the signal an identifier identifying the relaying outstation, and  
     wherein the base station, upon receipt of an acknowledgement signal, stores any appended identifier(s) for later use in routing signals to the outstation which originated that acknowledgement signal.

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The present invention relates to methods of, and apparatus for, routing through a network, and has particular application in routing through wireless networks.

BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION AND PRIOR ART

[0002] Wireless network technology is maturing, and base stations, which receive, buffer, and transmit data between a wireless network and a fixed network, are increasingly being installed in offices, homes and public places such as coffee shops, restaurants and airports.

[0003] With traditional wireless technology, only devices that are within range of a base station can send data to, and receive data from, the fixed network. Given the potential demand for wireless connections—in terms of volume and location—there has been significant motivation to develop capabilities that effectively extend the range of the base station.

[0004] One known approach creates a path between out-of-range devices and the base station by setting up peer-to-peer communications between wireless devices in the path. In this scenario, the wireless devices in the path essentially act as relays between the out-of-range device and the base station. For more information, the reader is referred to documents prepared by the mobile ad-hoc networking group (MANET), which is a working group within the Institute of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), and can be contacted via IETF Secretariat, c/o Corporation for National Research Initiatives, 1895 Preston White Drive, Suite 100, Reston, Va. 20191-5434, USA. An example of such documents can be found at http://www.ietf.org/html.charters/manet-charter.html.

[0005] In this approach, some means of establishing routes via the path of relay devices is required to reach the out-of-range devices. Given the differences between fixed and mobile networks, conventional routing methods, which are suitable for fixed networks, are unsuitable for routing through relay devices.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0006] According to the invention there is provided a method of operating a wireless network with a base station and a plurality of outstations, comprising transmitting a broadcast signal from the base station, and, in response to reception of the broadcast signal, transmitting an acknowledgement signal from an outstation. In the method at least some of the outstations serve for relaying of signals for other outstations, an outstation relaying an acknowledgement signal appends to the signal an identifier identifying the relaying outstation, and the base station, upon receipt of an acknowledgement signal, stores any appended identifier(s) for later use in routing signals to the outstation which originated that acknowledgement signal.

[0007] According to a second aspect of the invention there is provided a method of identifying a route to a wireless device that is in range of at least one other wireless device located within a wireless network, the wireless network comprising a base station operable to communicate with devices in the wireless network. The method comprises the steps of

[0008] a. sending a broadcast signal into the wireless network,

[0009] b. receiving an acknowledgement signal generated by one of the wireless devices in response to receipt of the broadcast signal, and

[0010] c. storing identifiers representative of the, or each, wireless device passed through by the acknowledgement signal,

[0011] wherein the stored identifiers collectively define a route between the base station and whichever device generated the acknowledgement signal.

[0012] Preferably a plurality of broadcast signals is sent, each being separated by a temporal interval. The method can also include a step of adapting the temporal interval in accordance with changes in the wireless network

[0013] According to a third aspect of the invention there is provided a method of routing data to a wireless device for which a route has been identified by the afore-described method steps. The routing method comprises the steps of

[0014] a. identifying which of the wireless devices in the wireless network the data is destined for,

[0015] b. retrieving stored identifiers constituting a route between the base station and the identified wireless device,

[0016] c. appending the stored identifiers to the data,

[0017] d. sending the data to a device corresponding to a first identifier in the route.

[0018] According to a fourth aspect of the invention there is provided a method of identifying a wireless device, for use in identifying a route to said device, wherein the wireless device is in range of at least one other wireless device located within a wireless network, the wireless network comprising a base station operable to communicate with devices in the wireless network. The method comprises the steps of

[0019] i. receiving a signal,

[0020] ii. if the signal is a broadcast signal, generating an acknowledgement signal in response to receipt of the broadcast signal,

[0021] iii. appending an identifier representative of the wireless device to the acknowledgement signal, and

[0022] iv. sending the acknowledgement signal to the base station.

[0023] Preferably step (iv) comprises the step of selecting a neighbouring device in accordance with a routing table, which routing table comprises preference values for sending data via neighbouring devices. In embodiments of the invention, a preference value corresponding to a neighbouring device is modified, at least in part, in dependence on time taken for signals to reach the device via that neighbouring device.

[0024] Conveniently, if the signal received at step (ii) is an acknowledgement signal, the acknowledgement signal is modified by adding an identifier representative of the wireless device thereto, the acknowledgement signal thereby storing identifiers representative of devices that collectively define a route between the base station and whichever device generated the acknowledgement signal.

[0025] Thus by the time the acknowledgement signal has arrived at the base station the signal contains identifiers indicative of a valid route from base station to whichever device initiated the acknowledgement signal.

[0026] According to the invention there is provided apparatus to effect the methods described above.

[0027] In the following description, the terms “wireless device” and “device” are used interchangeably.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0028] Further aspects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description of preferred embodiments of the invention, which are given by way of example only, and by reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to like parts, and in which:

[0029]FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a wireless network, within which embodiments of the invention operate;

[0030]FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of components of a base station and a device comprising part of the wireless network of FIG. 1;

[0031]FIGS. 3a and 3 b constitute a flow diagram showing a method of establishing a route to wireless devices in a wireless network according to an embodiment of the invention;

[0032]FIG. 4a is a schematic diagram illustrating aspects of the method of FIG. 3;

[0033]FIG. 4b is a schematic diagram illustrating further aspects of the method of FIG. 3;

[0034]FIG. 5a is a schematic diagram showing constituent parts of an advertisement packet generated according to an embodiment of the invention;

[0035]FIG. 5b is a schematic diagram showing constituent parts of an acknowledgement packet generated according to the an embodiment of invention;

[0036]FIG. 5c is a schematic diagram showing constituent parts of an updated acknowledgement packet generated according to an embodiment of the invention;

[0037]FIGS. 6a and 6 b constitute a flow diagram showing a method of routing a packet destined for a wireless device in the wireless network, according to an embodiment of the invention;

[0038]FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram illustrating aspects of the method of FIG. 3;

[0039]FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram showing constituent parts of a modified acknowledgement packet generated according to an embodiment of the invention;

[0040]FIG. 9 is a flow diagram showing a method of modifying the frequency with which advertisement packets are issued by the base station, according to an embodiment of the invention; and

[0041]FIG. 10 is a graph showing the effect of the method of FIG. 9 on the advertising frequency.

OVERVIEW OF ENVIRONMENT FOR EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

[0042]FIG. 1 shows a wireless network 100, including nodes 101 that are representative of a base station 103 and a plurality of devices 105 a, 105 b, 105 c, 105 d. The base station 103 connects to a wired network 110 from a fixed location using standard cabling. Typically, the base station 103 receives, buffers, and transmits data between the wireless network 100 and a wired network 110 infrastructure. A single base station 103 can directly or indirectly support a group of devices 105 a, 105 b, 105 c, 105 d (referred to generally as 105, or 105 i, below).

[0043] The network 100 could be a wireless Local Area Network, in which case the nodes 101 intercommunicate in accordance with the collection of 802.11 Institute of Electrical Engineers (IEEE) standards.

[0044] The 802.11 IEEE standards include three specifications, 802.11, 802.11a and 802.11b. For the 802.11 and 802.11b specifications, data is transferred at frequencies in the 2.4 GHz region of the radio spectrum. Data rates are generally 1 or 2 Mbps for 802.11, and 5.5 Mbps or 11 Mbps for 802.11b, although rates up to about 20 Mbps are realizable with 802.11b.

[0045] The 802.11a specification applies to wireless ATM systems and operates at radio frequencies between 5 GHz and 6 GHz. With a modulation scheme known as OFDM (orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing) data speeds as high as 54 Mbps are possible, but most commonly, communications takes place at 6 Mbps, 12 Mbps, or 24 Mbps. More information is available from the Institute of Electrical Engineers Standards Association, and details of this standard are documented at http://standards.ieee.org/catalog/IEEE802.11.html.

[0046] The network 100 could be any type of short-range communications network, such as a 3-G network, a bluetooth network, or a GSM network.

[0047] The devices 105 may include palmtop computers, desktop computers, hand-held computers, simple devices operable to receive and transmit SMS messages and mobile phones, among others. The devices 105 have wireless network adapters, such as wireless LAN adapters, which are implemented as PC cards in notebook or palmtop computers, as cards in desktop computers, or integrated within hand-held computers. Wireless network adapters provide an interface between a device network operating system (NOS) and the airwaves via an antenna.

[0048] Devices 105 can move around and communications will continue, unbroken, provided the devices 105 can directly connect to a base station. In order to extend the capability of the wireless network 100 infrastructure, wireless capabilities of other wireless devices in the neighbourhood can be exploited by using one or more devices to relay messages to the base station. Embodiments of the present invention are concerned with methods of routing data via these relay devices.

[0049] In a fixed network 110, in particular a packet switched network, packets are routed through the network 110 by means of routing tables, which are stored on routers R in the network 110 and list “next hop” devices as a function of destination address. In operation, a router examines the destination address of an incoming packet, and, by consulting the routing table, identifies which “next hop” device to forward the packet to. This method is well suited to fixed networks 110, where devices are typically static, and the frequency at which routing tables need to be updated, to accommodate changes in the network, is manageable.

[0050] Wireless networks, however, are designed to provide users with access to information from any location. This means that such users, and importantly their devices, may only be in the vicinity of a base station 103 for a short, and unpredictable, period of time. It is therefore impractical to maintain routes using the routing table method described above, as the frequency required to update the routing table in order to capture these changes, is unacceptably high.

[0051] Embodiments of the invention are therefore also concerned with providing route identification and delivery methods and apparatus that are suited to the dynamic nature of wireless networks.

OVERVIEW OF EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

[0052] Essentially the base station 103 advertises its presence by sending advertisement packets into the wireless network 100 at intervals. Each device 105 i (where i identifies a specific device) maintains a routing table to the base station 103, which details active next hop devices en route to the base station 103. Upon receipt of an advertisement packet, devices 105 i send an acknowledgement packet back to the base station using the routing tables to identify a suitable next hop device. The route taken by acknowledgement packets thus only involves devices that are active in the network 100.

[0053] Each time the acknowledgement packet passes through a device 105 i (on its way to the base station 103), the device 105 i appends its address to the acknowledgement packet. Thus, by the time the acknowledgement packet has arrived at the base station 103 the packet contains a valid route from base station 103 to whichever device initiated the acknowledgement packet. The base station 103 saves this route information and stores it as a valid route for whichever device 105 created the acknowledgement packet.

[0054] When packets arrive from the fixed network 110, destined for one of the devices 105 d, say, the base station 103 identifies which of the routes corresponds to the destined device 105 d, appends the identified route to the incoming packet, and sends the packet into the wireless network 100.

[0055] An advantage of embodiments of the invention is that route identification is self-organising and dynamic, as it is based on advertisement and acknowledgement packets issued by the base station 103 and active devices 105 respectively, which, by definition, can only propagate through active devices, and are issued periodically.

[0056] In terms of resource usage, an advantage of embodiments of the invention is that device requirements can be reduced, as most of the route processing is performed by the base station.

[0057] Additionally, the routing tables include weighted preferences that implicitly include information about hop-length and network congestion, so that the advertising mechanism tends to create routes that have a small number of hops (because of weighted preferences in routing tables). Thus the route information appended to packets originating from the fixed network is quite short.

[0058] One of the concepts underlying embodiments of the invention is that devices alert the base station when they want to receive data i.e. “data on demand”. Thus a device that wants to be available for calls/data to be routed to it generates acknowledgement packets. Conversely a device can disallow any calls/data to be routed to it by not generating acknowledgement packets (as this has the effect that the base station has no way of knowing how to route data to such devices).

[0059] Other embodiments of the invention modify the frequency with which the base station 103 issues advertisement packets, or the temporal interval that passes between broadcast events (broadcast of advertisement packets), in dependence on devices connecting and disconnecting to the wireless network. These embodiments include a mechanism for determining changes in the wireless environment, for quantifying the change, and for modifying this temporal interval in accordance therewith.

[0060] Essentially, these further embodiments optimise the functionality of the base station in accordance with an objective of minimising network traffic.

DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

[0061] Referring to FIG. 2, a first embodiment of the invention will now be discussed in more detail.

[0062]FIG. 2 shows a base station 103, which can be a wireless router, comprising a central processing unit (CPU) 201, a memory unit 203, an input/output device 205 for connecting the base station 103 to the fixed network 110, storage 207, a radio transmitter and receiver 209, and a suite of operating system programs 219, which control and co-ordinate low level operation of the base station 103. Such a configuration is well known in the art. The storage 207 also stores programs 211, 213, 215 that are processable by the CPU 201.

[0063] These programs include a generating program 211 for generating advertisement packets, a decoding program 213 for decoding acknowledgment packets, and a routing program 215 for routing incoming data packets to an appropriate wireless device 105.

[0064] The decoding program 213 enables the base station 103 to store routes to each (active) device 105 on the wireless network 100, and the routing program 215 enables the base station 103 to identify, on the basis of the destination address of incoming data packet(s), one of the stored routes, and to append the identified route to the incoming data packet(s).

[0065]FIG. 2 also shows an example of a wireless device 105, which, as stated above, can be a palmtop computer. A wireless device 105 typically comprises at least a processing unit 221, a memory store 223 and a wireless-LAN adapter 225 (as stated above). The basic configuration of a particular wireless device 105 varies in accordance with device type, and is well known to those in the art. In order to function in accordance with embodiments of the invention, the memory store 223 stores an updating program 231 for updating a routing table detailing “next hop” devices to the base station 103, an acknowledgement program 233 for sending acknowledgement packets to the base station 103, and a forwarding program 235 for forwarding packets on to other devices in the wireless network 100. These programs 231, 233, 235 can be processed by the processing unit 221.

[0066] The updating program 231 enables a device 105 a to select an active “next hop” device for transmission of data to the base station 103, and the acknowledgement program 233 enables the device 105 a to generate acknowledgement packets in response to advertisement packets received by the device 105 a. In addition, the acknowledgement program 233 enables the device 105 a to append an identifier representative of the device 105 a to an acknowledgement packet, which is en route for the base station 103, and which has been generated by another device upstream of that device 105 a (e.g. referring to FIG. 1, device 105 d).

[0067] The operation of the base station 103 and devices 105 according to an embodiment of the invention will now be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIGS. 3a and 3 b and the schematic diagrams shown in FIGS. 4a and 4 b. FIGS. 3a and 3 b show steps carried out by both devices 105 and the base station 103 when determining a route to a wireless device.

[0068] At step S 3.1 the base station 103 releases an advertisement packet AD, which is flooded through the network 100, as shown in FIG. 4a. This step is performed at regular, configurable intervals, by the generating program 211, which creates an advertisement packet AD and sends it to the radio transmitter 209.

[0069] Referring to FIG. 5a, the advertisement packet AD comprises an identifier 501 of the base station and a unique generating event identifier 503, which is a form of time stamp, indicating a time of creation of the packet AD. The advertisement packets AD are small and have little impact on network bandwidth.

[0070] At step S 3.2 the advertisement packets AD are received at devices 105 a, 105 b. For each device the advertisement packet AD is passed, via an interface, to the acknowledgement program 233.

[0071] At step S 3.3 acknowledgement program 233 firstly determines the type of packet that has been received. There are several ways of doing this, one of which involves packets carrying an identifier of packet type (for example, a field in a packet header could specify a type of packet) and depends on nodes 101 having a program that decodes the type identifier.

[0072] In the present embodiment, packet headers specify a packet type identifier 500, as can be seen in FIGS. 5a, 5 b and 5 c, and the acknowledgement program 233 and decoding program 213 running on devices 105 and base station 103 respectively read the packet header in order to identify packet type.

[0073] The packet identifier 500 may include one of the following types: PACKET TYPE ACTION Advert (AD) Broadcast packet to all neighbouring devices, send acknowledgement packet back to base station Acknowledgement Append device ID to packet and forward to (ACK) preferred next hop device (described in more detail later) Downstream data Read route from packet and send to next hop neighbour in the route (described in more detail later) Upstream data Forward to preferred next hop device

[0074] Other packet types are possible.

[0075] Having established that the received packet is an advertisement type packet AD, the acknowledgement program 233 passes the advertisement type packet AD to the updating program 231 in order to update the routing table of the device 105 a. As stated above, each device maintains a routing table detailing “next hop” devices en route for the base station 103. For example, referring to FIG. 4a, the routing table of device 105 d, which is maintained by the updating program 231, contains entries for devices 105 a and 105 c. The updating program 231 receives identification of its “next hop” neighbours from, e.g. a link layer protocol, which establishes neighbourhood information through simple signalling, as is known in the art.

[0076] As part of maintaining the routing table, the updating program 231 monitors the number and frequency of advertisement type packets that it receives from its “next hop” neighbours. This information is used by the updating program 231 to determine a preference rating, in the form of a weighting, for routing packets via these next hop devices.

[0077] Considering device 105 a, at step S 3.4 the updating program 231 modifies weights in the routing table according to the following equations: $\begin{matrix} {{r_{s,m}^{i}\left( {t + 1} \right)} = \frac{{r_{s,m}^{i}(t)} + {\delta \quad r}}{1 + {\delta \quad r}}} & (1) \\ {{r_{s,l}^{i}\left( {t + 1} \right)} = \frac{r_{s,l}^{i}(t)}{1 + {\delta \quad r}}} & (2) \\ {{\delta \quad r} = {\frac{\max - \min}{age} + \min}} & (3) \end{matrix}$

[0078] where

[0079] r is the weight calculated for a next hop device;

[0080] i represents the device at which a packet has been received;

[0081] s represents the source device of the packet (the base station 103);

[0082] m represents the device from which the packet was received (one of the neighbouring next hop devices);

[0083] l represents one of the other next hop devices (ones from which the packet was not received);

[0084] δr is a configurable reinforcement parameter;

[0085] min, max represent a minimum and maximum value respectively for reinforcement parameter;

[0086] age represents age of a the packet; and

[0087] t and (t+1) indicate (discrete) time.

[0088] Initially, a neighbouring device, from which a packet is received, is assigned a weight of 1.0. Thereafter weights are modified in accordance with Equations (1)-(3).

[0089] Equation (1) specifies the new reinforced weight associated with next hop device m. The weights in the routing table always sum to 1 and thus weights associated with other neighbours must be modified to reflect the change. Equation (2) specifies the amount by which the weights for all other neighbours are reduced. Equation (3) specifies an example reinforcement parameter that is used in Equations (1) and (2).

[0090] The reinforcement parameter δr modifies the amount by which the weights are adjusted in Equations (1) and (2), and ranges between a maximum value (max) and a minimum value (min). The precise value is determined by the age of packets, as can be determined from the time stamp identifier 503 in the advertisement packets AD. Alternative reinforcement parameters are possible.

[0091] As can be seen from Equations (1)-(3), the rate at which packets propagate through a network affects routing tables. If packets are delayed (each device 105 can maintain a data queue (not shown), which holds data that needs to be either forwarded or processed by the device 105), they will have less influence on a routing table than those that have travelled via a less congested route, because fewer of them may be received within a given time frame and because older packets have a lesser effect on the weights within the routing table.

[0092] Having updated the weights as described above, the updating program 231 determines whether an advertisement type packet AD bearing this time stamp 503 has previously been received from the base station 103. If such a packet has already been received, the advertisement packet is discarded, step S 3.5.

[0093] However, if this is the first time an advertisement packet AD bearing this time stamp 503 has been received, the acknowledgement program 233 broadcasts the packet AD to all neighbouring devices, at step S 3.6, which in this case is device 105 d, and generates (and sends out) an acknowledgement packet ACK.

[0094] For the purposes of the present exemplifying example, the acknowledgement packet ACK generated by device 105 a is not discussed further (acknowledgement packets ACK are discussed below, with reference to device 105 d).

[0095] The advertisement packet AD broadcast by 105 a at step S 3.6 to device 105 d is received and handled by the updating and acknowledgement programs 231, 233 respectively on device 105 d, as described above at steps S 3.2-S 3.6. Assuming that this is the first time an advertisement packet AD bearing this time stamp 503 has been received at device 105 d, the acknowledgement program 233 broadcasts the packet AD to all neighbouring devices, which in this case is devices 105 a and 105 c, and then generates an acknowledgement packet ACK (step S 3.6)

[0096] An example acknowledgement packet ACK is shown in FIG. 5b, comprising an identifier 511 representative of whichever device first created the acknowledgement packet ACK (here device 105 d), an identifier 513 representative of the ad event 503 to which the ACK is responding, and the route 515 taken by the packet ACK (here device 105 d, as this is the start of the route 515). The route part 515 is modified as the packet ACK moves through the network.

[0097] At step S 3.7.1, the acknowledgement program 233 selects a next hop device (here either 105 a or 105 c) to send the acknowledgement packet ACK to. This comprises consulting the routing table and selecting whichever device has the highest weighting. Referring to FIG. 4a, device 105 a has a higher weighting, so device 105 a is selected, and the acknowledgement packet ACK is sent from device 105 d to device 105 a, as shown in FIG. 4b.

[0098] At step S 3.7.2 the acknowledgement program 233 inserts an identifier that is representative of the device 105 d to the route part 515 of the acknowledgement packet ACK generated at step S 3.6, and at step S 3.7.3 the acknowledgement packet ACK is sent to the whichever next hop device was selected at step S 3.7.1

[0099] As can be seen from the logic step S 3.7.4, depending on the type of node 101 selected at step S 3.7.1 (i.e. either device 105 or base station 103), the sequence continues to step S 3.8 or step S 3.9.1. At this stage of the present example the packet ACK is sent to another device 105 d, so the process moves to step S 3.8.

[0100] At step S 3.8, the acknowledgement packet ACK is received at the selected device 105 a, whereupon steps S 3.3-S3.7.3 are carried out. At step S 3.3, acknowledgement program 233 firstly determines the type of packet that has been received (as described above). This packet is an acknowledgement type packet ACK, so the acknowledgement program 233 jumps straight to step S 3.7.1.

[0101] At step S 3.7.1, the acknowledgement program 233 selects a next hop device (here either 105 d or 103) to send the acknowledgement packet ACK to. In this case one of the next hops is the intended destination of the packet, i.e. the base station 103. Having established that the received packet is an acknowledgement packet ACK originating from another device 105 d, at step S 3.7.2, the acknowledgement program 233 adds an identifier, representative of the device 105 a to the route part 515 of the acknowledgement packet ACK. FIG. 5c shows the acknowledgement packet ACK having passed through device 105 a; it now includes an identifier representative of this device 105 a in the route part 515.

[0102] Next, at step S 3.7.3, the acknowledgement packet ACK is sent to the next hop device selected at S 3.7.1.

[0103] At this point in the sequence, the type of node 101 selected at step S 3.7.1 is a base station 103, so logic step S 3.7.4 progresses to step S 3.9.1, whereupon the decoding program 213 determines that the received packet is an acknowledgement type packet ACK (as described at step S 3.3). At step S 3.9.2 the decoding program 213 retrieves the route part 515 and the identifier 511 representative of the originating device 105 d from the packet ACK. At step S 3.10, the retrieved route part 515 is stored as a valid route to the originating device 105 d in a routing store 241, e.g. in the memory unit 203.

[0104] For example, for device 105 d, the routing store 241 will read: Destination node 105d Route 105a, 105d

[0105] The example given above only includes 2 devices 105 a, 105 d; it will be appreciated that in a wireless network there may be many more devices, so that the route part 515 of the acknowledgment packet ACK may be far longer than that shown in FIG. 5c.

[0106]FIGS. 3a and 3 b thus show a method for establishing a route to devices in the wireless network 100. As the route part 515 is generated dynamically, in response to advertisement packets AD that are generated periodically, and as the route part 515 only comprises identifiers representative of devices 105 that are active in the network 100, the routes stored by the base station 103 are likely to be valid.

[0107] The routing of a packet P1 from the fixed network 110 will now be described with reference to FIGS. 6a and 6 b, which collectively provide a flow diagram showing operation of the base station 103 and devices 105 when routing data packets.

[0108] At step S 6.1 a data packet P1 is received at the base station 103 from the fixed network 110, whereupon it is passed to the decoding program 213. The decoding program 213 determines that the received packet is a data packet P1 destined for one of the wireless devices (as described at step S 3.3: the packet is a “Downstream data” type packet), at step S 6.2, whereupon the data packet P1 is passed to the routing program 215.

[0109] At step S 6.3, the routing program 215 retrieves a destination address of the data packet P1 from the header thereof, as is known in the art, and at step S 6.4 accesses the routing store 241 to retrieve a route to the device corresponding to the retrieved destination address (the retrieved route is the route part 515 that was stored in the routing store 241 at step S 3.10).

[0110] At step S 6.5, the routing program 215 replaces the destination address part of the header with the retrieved route 515, adds a packet type identifier 500 representative of a downstream packet type, and routes the data packet P1 to a first device in the retrieved route 515. For example, if a packet, destined for device 105 d, were to be received at the base station 103, and if the routing store 241 contained a route entry of:

[0111] [105 a, 105 d]

[0112] for device 105 d, the routing program 215 would add route 105 a, 105 d to the data packet P1, and send the data packet P1 to device 105 a.

[0113] At step S 6.6, the data packet P1 is received at device 105 a, whereupon it is analysed for packet type, as described above with reference to Step S 3.3. Upon examination of the packet type identifier 500, the packet type is determined to be “downstream”, whereupon the packet is passed to the forwarding program 235, which, at step S 6.7, reads the header in order to determine which device to send the data packet P1 to.

[0114] Firstly, at step S 6.8, the forwarding program 235 determines whether this is the last device in the route. In this case, it is not, and device 105 d is determined to be the next device in the route. Thus at step S 6.9, the forwarding program 235 sends the data packet P1 to device 105 d (of course in this example there is only one device 105 d attached downstream of device 105 a, so the packet could be routed to device 105 d without needing to review the header).

[0115] Steps S 6.6-S 6.8 are then repeated, for device 105 d. Upon passing through step S 6.8, the forwarding program 235 determines that device 105 d is the last device in the route. Thus the data packet P1 is passed, at step S 6.10, onto whichever application program it is destined for, as is well known in the art.

[0116] As stated above, one of the advantages of embodiments of the invention is that identification of routes within the wireless network is self-organising. This can be seen from the following example, which describes route identification when one of the wireless devices 105 becomes inactive.

[0117]FIG. 7 shows the wireless network of FIGS. 4a and 4 b, where one of the wireless devices 105 a has become inactive. This can happen when, for example, a user has turned the device 105 a off, or when the user moves out of range of any of the devices connected to the base station 103.

[0118] As described with reference to FIG. 3, the base station 103 periodically issues advertisement packets AD. As device 105 a is no longer active, the advertisement packets AD can only reach device 105 d via device 105 c. Thus weights in the routing table, maintained on each of the devices 105, and detailing all available next hops to the base station 103, would be modified (step S 3.4) to favour device 105 c (e.g. if a node becomes inactive, then in the first instance the weight previously associated with that node may be redistributed to the other neighbours. In the present example, a weight of 0.0 is assigned to device 105 a and a weight of 1.0 is assigned to device 105 c, as shown in FIG. 7)

[0119] As a result, the acknowledgement packets ACK, issued as described at steps S 3.6-S 3.10, will follow route path 105 d, 105 c, and 105 b to reach the base station 103, so that the entry in the routing store 241 will read: Destination node 105d Route 105b, 105c, 105d

[0120] Thus because

[0121] a) the base station 103 sends out advertisement packets AD periodically, and

[0122] b) establishing a route between a device 105 and the base station 103 is dependent on routing tables maintained on the device, which is essentially a measure of the ability of neighbouring devices to forward the advertisement packets AD to that device 105 (as given by equations (1)-(3)),

[0123] if any of the neighbouring devices become inactive, the routing table will adapt the weights in accordance with equations (1)-(3), and will thereby automatically identify whichever neighbour is most suitable for transporting advertisement packets ACK towards the base station 103.

Frequency of Generating Advertisement Packets

[0124] The embodiment described above assumes that the interval between broadcast of advertisement packets AD is fixed. However, in practice, the rate at which advertisement packets AD are required to be generated is dependent on the nature of the wireless environment: if the environment is relatively static—e.g. devices remain active and in the same place for some time—the routing tables on devices will be correspondingly static, which means that the base station 103 could issue advertisement packets AD relatively infrequently. Alternatively, if the wireless environment is dynamic—e.g. devices rapidly change status from active to inactive (and vice-versa) and users are in range for a short period of time—the routing tables will need to be updated relatively frequently, to enable that the base station 103 to gather valid routes.

[0125] Other embodiments of the invention thus adapt the temporal interval in accordance with the rate of change of the wireless network, or the mobility of devices. The embodiments include a mechanism for determining the changes in the wireless environment, for quantifying those changes, and for modifying the temporal interval in accordance therewith.

[0126] Specifically, in addition to the programs 231, 233, 235 loaded and run on the devices 105 as described above, each device has a logging program 237, which, for each neighbouring device, records the number of times the device has failed to contact the neighbouring device (when a source node 101 tries to send data to a destination node, if data is not received successfully at the destination node, the source node receives a packet indicating failure to deliver the data to the destination node). Referring again to FIG. 4a, device 105 d maintains a log of the number of times it has failed to connect to devices 105 a and 105 c respectively. The log can be stored in the memory store 223 of the device 105 d.

[0127] This log is reset each time a fresh advertisement packet AD is received at the device 105 d, so that the log represents a measure of the activeness (of neighbouring) devices in periods between successive advertisement packets AD.

[0128] This information is conveyed to the base station 103 by means of the acknowledgement packets ACK: the acknowledgement packet ACK generated at step S 3.6 includes an additional field, detailing number of failures 517, as shown in FIG. 8.

[0129] The base station 103 does not need to know which neighbouring device(s) has/have become inactive—it simply needs to know that there is a change to the wireless network 100, namely that some of the devices 105 are no longer active.

[0130] When acknowledgement packets ACK are received at the base station 103 (steps S 3.9, S 3.10), the base station 103 performs the following steps: Referring to FIG. 9, at step S 9.1, the decoding program 213 collects the number of failures 517 from all incoming acknowledgment packets ACK, and adds up the number of packets that reported non-zero failures. At step S 9.2 the decoding program 213 calculates an average number of failures, by dividing the total number of failures by the number of packets that reported non-zero failures. At step S 9.3, the decoding program 213 modifies the temporal interval by inputting the average number of failures into a frequency function 901.

[0131] In one embodiment, the frequency function 901 may be a sigmoid function, which smoothly varies the temporal interval based on the current number of failures. This function 901 is relatively insensitive to a small number of failures but decreases the temporal interval rapidly as the number of failures begins to grow, as shown in FIG. 10 (in FIG. 10 the temporal interval is expressed as frequency): $\begin{matrix} {\frac{1}{Interval} = \frac{Max}{1 + ^{- {k{({x - l})}}}}} & {{Equation}\quad (4)} \end{matrix}$

[0132] x represents the average number of failures reported to a base station 103,

[0133] l is a normalising constant,

[0134] Max is the minimum temporal interval, and

[0135] k is a constant that controls the gradient. A small value of k yields a smoothly varying function, and as k increases the equation approximates a step function.

Additional Details

[0136] Devices 105 can include very simple devices that may just be shipped at very low cost and, e.g. just allow a few SMS messages to be sent. For example these devices may not want anything routing to them but may just respond to some advert or automatically register with a supplier to start the guarantee period on a consumer item etc. Thus not every device would need to be have full two-way communication capability and would not need to generate acknowledgement packets ACK to inform the base station of a valid route. This has the advantage of reducing the overhead on the communication channel and base stations.

[0137] When a device changes status, from inactive to active, (e.g. because the user of that device has changed the configuration of the device) this causes the acknowledgement and forwarding programs 233, 235 to be activated, and the device starts generating acknowledgement packets ACK in response to the advertising packets AD. The acknowledgement packets ACK propagate through the network 100 as described above with reference to FIG. 3, and the base station 103 stores the route to that device in the routing store 241. Data can then be routed to that device.

[0138] In addition, whereas the aforedescribed embodiment details the routing of AD, ACK, and downstream packets, it should also be understood that the embodiment of the invention also provides for the routing of upstream packets, again using the routing weights contained within the routing tables. The routing of upstream packets is substantially similar to that of downstream packets as already described, albeit in the opposite direction.

[0139] As will be understood by those skilled in the art, the invention described above may be embodied in one or more computer programs. These programs can be contained on various transmission and/or storage mediums such as a floppy disc, CD-ROM, or other optically readable medium, or magnetic tape so that the programs can be loaded onto one or more general purpose computers or could be downloaded over a computer network using a suitable transmission medium.

[0140] The programs 211, 213, 215, 231, 233, 235, 237 of the present invention are conveniently written using the C programming language, but it is to be understood that this is inessential to the invention. 

1. A method of identifying a route to a wireless device that is in range of at least one other wireless device located within a wireless network, the wireless network comprising a base station operable to communicate with devices in the wireless network, the method comprising the steps of a. sending a broadcast signal into the wireless network, b. receiving an acknowledgement signal generated by one of the wireless devices in response to receipt of the broadcast signal, and c. storing identifiers representative of the, or each, wireless device passed through by the acknowledgement signal, wherein the stored identifiers collectively define a route between the base station and whichever device generated the acknowledgement signal.
 2. A method according to claim 1, in which a plurality of broadcast signals is sent, each being separated by a temporal interval.
 3. A method according to claim 2, including a step of adapting the temporal interval in accordance with changes in the wireless network.
 4. A method of identifying a wireless device, for use in identifying a route to said device, wherein the wireless device is in range of at least one other wireless device located within a wireless network, the wireless network comprising a base station operable to communicate with devices in the wireless network, the method comprising the steps of i. receiving a signal, ii. if the signal is a broadcast signal, generating an acknowledgement signal in response to receipt of the broadcast signal, iii. appending an identifier representative of the wireless device to the acknowledgement signal, and iv. sending the acknowledgement signal to the base station.
 5. A method according to claim 3, in which step (iv) comprises the step of selecting a neighbouring device in accordance with a routing table, which routing table comprises preference values for sending data via neighbouring devices.
 6. A method according to claim 5, in which a preference value corresponding to a neighbouring device is modified, at least in part, in dependence on time taken for signals to reach the device via that neighbouring device.
 7. A method according to any one of claims 4 to 6, wherein, if the signal received at step (ii) is an acknowledgement signal, the acknowledgement signal is modified by adding an identifier representative of the wireless device thereto, the acknowledgement signal thereby storing identifiers representative of devices that collectively define a route between the base station and whichever device generated the acknowledgement signal.
 8. A method of routing data to a wireless device for which a route has been identified by the method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, the method comprising the steps of a. identifying which of the wireless devices in the wireless network the data is destined for, b. retrieving stored identifiers constituting a route between the base station and the identified wireless device, c. appending the stored identifiers to the data, d. sending the data to a device corresponding to a first identifier in the route.
 9. Apparatus for identifying a route to a wireless device that is in range of at least one other wireless device located within a wireless network, the wireless network comprising a base station operable to communicate with devices in the wireless network, the apparatus comprising a. generating means arranged to generate a signal and broadcast the generated signal into the wireless network, b. receiving means arranged to receive signals, c. retrieving means arranged to retrieve route information from at least some of the received signals, which route information comprises identifiers representative of the, or each, wireless device passed through by said received signals, d. storing means arranged to store the retrieved route information.
 10. Apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the receiving means includes means operable to distinguish between types of signal, so that, when a received signal is an acknowledgement type signal, the retrieving means retrieves route information from the acknowledgement signal.
 11. Apparatus according to claim 9 or claim 10, wherein the generating means is further arranged to generate a plurality of signals that are separated by a temporal interval.
 12. Apparatus according to claim 11, further including frequency adapting means arranged to adapt the temporal interval, which adaption is dependent on changes in the wireless network.
 13. Apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the receiving means is further arranged to receive data representative of wireless device status, and the frequency adapting means is arranged to modify the temporal interval in accordance with the received data.
 14. Apparatus for identifying a wireless device, for use in identifying a route to said wireless device, wherein the wireless device is in range of at least one other wireless device located within a wireless network, the wireless network comprising a base station operable to communicate with devices in the wireless network, the apparatus comprising i. receiving means arranged to receive a signal, ii. generating means arranged to generate an acknowledgement signal in response to receipt of a broadcast-type signal, iii. appending means arranged to include an identifier representative of the wireless device to the acknowledgement signal, and iv. means arranged to send the acknowledgement signal to the base station.
 15. Apparatus according to claim 14, further including a routing table, which routing table comprises preference values for sending data via neighbouring devices.
 16. Apparatus according to claim 15, further including means arranged to modify a preference value corresponding to a neighbouring device, which modification occurs, at least in part, in dependence on time taken for signals to reach the device via that neighbouring device.
 17. Apparatus according to claim 16, wherein the means (iv) is arranged to select a device in accordance with said preference values, and to send the acknowledgement signal to the base station via the selected device.
 18. Apparatus according to any one of claims 14 to 17, wherein, if the signal received by the receiving means (i) is an acknowledgement signal, the generating means is rendered inoperative and the appending means appends an identifier representative of whichever device is in receipt of the acknowledgement signal to the acknowledgement signal.
 19. Apparatus according to any one of claims 14 to 18, further including i. monitoring means arranged to monitor operational status of devices in the wireless network, ii. collecting means arranged to collect data representative of said device status, and iii. means arranged to send the collected data to the base station.
 20. Apparatus according to claim 19, wherein the monitoring means monitors operational status within a time interval, and the collecting means collects the data within the time interval.
 21. Apparatus according to claim 20, wherein the means (iv) is also arranged to send the collected data to the base station.
 22. A method of operating a wireless network with a base station and a plurality of outstations comprising transmitting a broadcast signal from the base station, and, in response to reception of the broadcast signal, transmitting an acknowledgement signal from an outstation; wherein at least some of the outstations serve for relaying of signals for other outstations, wherein an outstation relaying an acknowledgement signal appends to the acknowledgement signal an identifier identifying the relaying outstation, and wherein the base station, upon receipt of an acknowledgement signal, stores any appended identifier(s) for later use in routing signals to the outstation which originated that acknowledgement signal. 